I bowled longer spells in Champions One-day Cup and that gave me more confidence: Shadab Khan

Panthers, led by Pakistani all-rounder, Shadab Khan, emerged as winners of the Champions One-Day Cup 2024 after they were too hot to handle for Markhors in Faisalabad.

Shadab, who registered tournament figures of 32-3-185-5, was extremely candid in assessing his performance. 

"Individually, I need more improvement. But things are getting better because I hadn't bowled long spells recently. I bowled longer spells this tournament, and that gave me more confidence. But there's still plenty of time before I get to that level," stated Shakib, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Apart from mentioning the fact that he would "definitely play as many red-ball games as possible this season," he also shared the mindset he and his team had made a point to follow not only for the final, but throughout the entire campaign.

"We wanted to focus on the process rather than the result. We're an emotional country - when we get results, we rise really high, and when we don't, we hit rock-bottom. We zig-zag in this emotional cycle. What we can control is our process, and that should be level, not up and down. So, we tried to keep things simple rather than caring about the result. The result is not in our hands; even today, we discussed this. We weren't even thinking about the result," shared Shadab.

Also Read: Panthers defeat Markhors to clinch Champions One-Day Cup

Ali Raza's mentality belies his age: Shadab

Shadab, who had himself gone through a lean couple of years in terms of landing the ball in the right areas consistently, praised how the 16-year-old speedster, Ali Raza, went about his business in the tournament.

"Ali Raza's mentality belies his age. The way he's bowling, I think he could be a useful asset for the Pakistan side in future. We need to be careful with him because he's still young and his body's still fragile. That makes him more vulnerable to injuries," added Shadab.

Also Read: Mohammad Yousuf resigns as Pakistan men's selector citing personal reasons

While Shadab's all-round prowess for Pakistan might have taken a slight dip of late, there's no denying that his leadership skills have remain undamaged. After all, he had led the side with the youngest average age out of the five participating teams to ultimate glory.